M.I.A. - Paper Planes

So it seems Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam has provided for us the solution to a truly archaic conundrum: what does someone do when their track, subsequently their album, doesn’t garner the acclaim and exposure it might have deserved? Quite simply, film a new video, feature it in a Pineapple Express trailer, and finally re-release it. It has, apparently, worked.

Generally speaking, M.I.A. packs the organic kind of life experience and background that, especially in rap and hiphop, intrinsically animates a record. The brand that ‘Paper Planes’, the immediately listenable penultimate track off 2007 sophomore album ‘Kala’ and the more recent ‘Homeland Security Remixes’, emanates relentlessly. Stemmed slightly by M.I.A.’s family history and own personal encounters with the staunch US immigration service, the track showcases all the coarse fatalism, superficiality and backstabbing acerbity of the modern urban life, both in veracious lyrics, the scratched aesthetic and the lethargic, sedated bassline and backing beat maintained throughout. Together with a lifting riff from the Clash’s ‘Straight to Hell’ and the gunshots and slamming cash registers of the chorus, ‘Paper Planes’ presents a tuneful amalgam of influences and exotic dynamic, one of the most promising for a while.

Put plainly, the track still feels as fresh and pervading in a delayed UK release as it did around a year ago in the States.